Satellite navigation systems are a complete mystery to me. I know what they do in that they can direct you to places when you are travelling but that is all. I have never bought one or used one before and so when I had to buy one for someone I was completely flummoxed as to what to buy. I had heard of the Garmin brand and so decided that would be a good one to go for. However, I then had to decide which was the best. I started out by looking at the Garmin 396 and it looked like it would do everything that I expected ? i.e. gave your verbal directions on how to get to somewhere. Then I looked at another model, the Garmin 296 and wondered how this might be different. There were a few differences but I was not sure which would be the most useful. I therefore ended up speaking to a shop assistant and asking them what the main differences were and which would be the best value for money. In the end I didn’t buy either of the ones that I was looking at but ended up with a Garmin 496. I just hope that it suits the person that I am buying it for and has all of the functions that they need.